“Seth material” search engine (Jane Roberts)

One half-hour a day is more than sufficient, considering these sessions. And also, I am at present against these fairly frequent sessions where, on the one hand, Ruburt pretends that he is merely resting; that is, he pretends to himself, but actually he is expanding his energies, and expending them just as quickly, for this amounts to more than one psychological time experiment daily.

Then he dares to go forward, only then he must rush. The spontaneity is good, the lack of caution is not. The experience concerning the poetry was a legitimate one. All in all however, Ruburt did entirely too much last week.

I do not approve of a whole day being given over to the sort of experimentation carried on by Ruburt last week in the Father Trainor sessions. In one respect I do agree with Ruburt, in that any future experiments with friends would be of better advantage carried out using chairs at a table, and actually making as few suggestions as possible.

I am not saying that you should not talk about our sessions or allied subjects with friends, only that one night or sometimes two, of social discourse should certainly contain some more outward enjoyments. It would do Ruburt no harm either to resume his painting. His time as a rule is very busily engaged, and usually with mental work. It is all the more important therefore that his leisure have some outward aspect to it, and when possible of an active nature.

His Saturday housecleaning, believe it or not, is excellent for him. The short story work is a very good balance actually, for both his poetry and the book of mine that he is working on. I had meant to mention this earlier. The people, the young people with whom you work, Joseph, are very good guests for you to have. Mark is good for you both, and in many instances his impulse to get you both out of the house has been a good one.

I am not saying that you should always spend your weekend evenings in one particular manner. Evenings at home with guests are very good, but again, such evenings should not constantly be taken up with experiments and discussions, though they have their place at such gatherings now and then.

I am not saying you should always go dancing, but this is an excellent relaxation for you both, and leaving the house or visiting at someone else’s home is also good for you both. I would not take so much time this evening with this material if I did not feel that it was important enough to warrant it. Surely you and your friends could go dancing together when you can afford it. Surely, you can for example go with Mark to one of his jolly haunts. Even though no physical activity such as dancing is available the change is still good.

Now, on session days Ruburt should rest one half-hour. I mean rest or sleep. You should both keep up your exercises. You diet has been good. I am trying to look at your situation from all angles while I am about it, to see if any other adjustments should be made.

One small note. Upon another occasion I would like to speak about Mark’s recent seizure. He is very loyal, particularly to you, Joseph, and is indeed in his own way as trustworthy a friend as you have ever had; this having to do with past experiences also.

(While visiting us on a recent weekday evening, Bill Macdonnel ruptured a blood vessel in his nose. It bled to such an extent that after half an hour we called the emergency room at one of the local hospitals. Bill lost much blood and became quite ill. Just as the hospital instructed us to take him there, the bleeding stopped. Being afraid to move very much Bill spent the night with us. He was better in the morning, although the bleeding resumed briefly. It developed that Bill has been troubled by this ailment since childhood. Jane and I did not know about it, however, and this was his first such seizure in over a year.)

(End at 10:37. Jane was well dissociated. Once in a while Jane and I have discussed extra sessions, but usually we do not have the time, particularly when other experiments like the one involving Father Trainor crop up. Occasionally we would like a session dealing with some specific problem, and may try this approach. Also one involving questions and answers.)

(This performance was as good as the first one. I felt carried away by the voice, almost outside of myself, very light and disconnected from this voice. But I do recall that the book itself, which I held as I paced, was heavy. I grew cold and tingled as I read. My hands perspired quite a bit, perhaps from holding the book. Rob came out of his studio to listen to me. When I discovered that I had recorded nothing this time I felt cheated, because to me this reading had been most unusual.

(I was so angry that I did the whole thing over again. Lepanto is a four-page poem. This time the performance was about like the second one, already recorded. Perhaps if I feel subjectively right about doing it again, I may try it tonight. I don’t know where the volume comes from, the deep manlike tones. Perhaps it is what actors call merely projection, breathing from the diaphragm. I wasn’t conscious of breathing any differently than usual, but if this was a subconscious production that wouldn’t make any difference. But where would the male aspect enter, unless it be a woman’s attempt to mimic as best she could the voice of a man she had admired?

(As a check I suggested later that Jane try reading a different poem, one not read by Father Trainor, to see if she could summon this powerful new voice at will. I wanted to see if something Jane had no emotional involvement with, via memory, could also be used to summon voice changes. Nothing happened. To begin with Jane could not consciously summon nearly the volume of voice, and within a few lines she was so hoarse she had to rest. She said Father Trainor always read the Lepanto and the Elegy on his Sunday visits, and that she could not remember his reading anything else.

(This voice was not the Seth voice by any means. Even at its strongest Seth’s voice is a dry and intellectual one. The Father Trainor voice was very emotional by contrast. I do not believe that the Father Trainor voice at its best exceeded Seth at his best, and vice versa.